I foolishly didn't have time to scan in any of these Christmas presents (held by my awesome niece and nephews, their proud owners), so I had to settle for snapshots as they were opened. I'm especially miffed I didn't get a good shot of Kermit, as he came out pretty darn good.

But my favorite story is about the space pic in the lower left corner - it was for my nephew Joe, who as I understood, wanted "the night sky." So I looked up what the constellations would look like on his birthday, masked them out, added a moon, and painted it up. One night while I was talking to him on the phone, he mentions the TIE fighter he wants in the picture. "What TIE fighter? I'm done!" I said. But he's my nephew, and one of my godsons, and darnit, it's Christmas, and I love him, so I went back in with a wet brush and lifted out a whole bunch of sky and made him a TIE fighter, and while I was at it, made the moon into the Death Star for good measure. I think it came out even better, so everyone wins.

So I was telling my brother (his dad) that there's now a TIE fighter, it looks great, the force is with me, and all that. And he says, "Which kind of TIE fighter did you paint?" and my blood ran cold. I had no idea there was more than one kind! Luckily for me, the one I painted was the correct one. Phew!

While my pre-Christmastime was very busy with all the painting and crafting, I can honestly say it was also exhilarating. I spent my time painting and painting and painting, and I was so proud to when it came time to wrap them. I learned something new with each painting, and yes, there are even more to show (and... to finish.... ) I still also have one yet to scan and two more still to start! I'll show Peter's (which I did scan) next, and Paul's which is a work in progress that is proving to be quite a challenge.